A lost game

Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has strongly come forward against Prime Minister Modi’s decision of buying 36 “ready to fly” Rafale fighter aircrafts from France, threatening to approach court if the government ignores his warning.

The reasons he puts forward objecting the deal are significant and can’t be neglected. Swamy, calling the deal “corrupt”, said that the deal would bring “bad name” to the party and questioned the PM’s move to buy the Rafale aircrafts that every other country in the world had rejected. He said that the countries that had earlier signed a MoU to procure the aircrafts have already scrapped the deal. The senior BJP leader added that the agreement involving crores of money would benefit Dassault Aviation, the French company that manufactures the fighter jets. The company which is running in losses would wind up if India didn’t buy the planes. Swamy also added that instead of buying the aircrafts the government could have brought the company if its purpose was to please France. Modi reached Paris on Thursday for bilateral talks with France’s president, François Hollande and French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian would travel to India soon to finalise the deal. The aircraft deal initiated by Modi was aimed at modernizing the country’s ageing warplane fleet citing the “critical operational necessity of fighter aircraft in India". The PM said that “civil servants would discuss [terms and conditions] in more detail and continue the negotiations”.

Dassault had sold 24 Rafale jets to Egypt in February. The new deal is besides the original 126-jet agreement, the negotiations regarding the finalizing of which is still going on. The $20-billion deal for 126 Rafale fighter aircraft has been stuck since 2012 over price and delivery guarantees. As per the agreement, 18 were to be brought from France directly and the rest were to be assembled in India by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. But the reluctance in aiding with their technology in manufacturing more planes in India and not accepting the aircrafts in given timeframes delayed the implementation of the agreement. But unlike what Swamy said no other country has brought planes from the company in last three years. All of the 27 deals including the Rafale aircrafts agreement indicate Modi’s vulnerability to the corporate bigwigs with selfish motives and the main stream economic media who are their puppets.

Another company Typhoon that had earlier come forward to make deal with India has received an order for 571 Euro Fighter planes, from six countries and the cost reportedly is thrice less than that offered by Dassault. The air force authorities presented the urgent necessity of new aircrafts citing the changing political scenario and the war threats raised by Pakistan and China. The Prime Minister as usual, didn’t consult with the rest of the officials or the Cost Negotiation Committee of the Defense Ministry and went ahead taking the final decision without the presence of Minister Manohar Parrikar. Modi, on critical matters, try to win the concerned authorities instead of carrying out political consultations and discussions. The deal is likely to adversely influence Modi’s “Make in India” initiative as well as the future budget of the country. Dassault Aviation surely has got a boost by the aircrafts deal and France, apparently, has achieved much more other than the Rafale deal and the agreement on the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Maharashtra. The move by the PM would only ruin the country’s economy.